Various types of networks are well-known in the art. Common network types include Ethernet, token ring, and asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks. In each of these types of networks, it is desirable to analyze network operational parameters, such as network traffic and network errors, for planning, fault detection, and other purposes. Apparatus and methods for network operational analysis are well-known for Ethernet networks and are described, for example, in RMON MIB, RFC 1757, IETF standard, Ed. S. Waldbusser, Carnegie Mellon University, publication date February 1995, available, for example, from WWW Internet site http://ftp.internic.net. Traffic analysis apparatus and methods for token ring networks are also well-known and are described, for example, in Token Ring Extensions to RMON MIB, RFC 1513, Ed. S. Waldbusser, Carnegie Mellon University, publication date September 1993, available, for example, from WWW Internet site http://ftp.internic.net.
For ATM networks, suggestions have been made for traffic analysis such as, for example, the VC Steering MIB, a contribution to the ATM Forum. The VC Steering MIB suggests a method where a specific connection is copied to a monitoring device; that is, where all traffic passing over a specific connection is also sent to the monitoring device. Copying a specific connection to a monitoring device is believed to not be optimum in all cases because, for example, in the case where a large amount of traffic passes over the connection, the amount of traffic to be copied is large and hence a significant load may be placed on the ATM network by the copying itself.
The AToM MIB, RFC 1695, IETF standard, Ed. M. Ahmed and K. Tesnik, Bell Communications Research, publication date August 1994, available, for example, from WWW Internet site http://ftp.intenic.net, suggests a method for traffic monitoring in ATM networks where monitoring is performed on the individual circuit level. No suggestion is made in the AToM MIB to group together monitoring information from different circuits.
A press release entitled "Cisco Collaborates with RMON and Analysis Tool Vendors to Develop Specification for ATM Remote Monitoring", dated Feb. 20, 1996, describes an intention to present a draft specification for ATM traffic analysis to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).
A proposal entitled "Proposal for Remote Network Monitoring MIB Extensions for ATM Networks" was distributed at the ATMF's "Test Sub-Working Group" and "Network Managing Sub-Working Group" meeting on Sep. 23, 1996. The proposal number is ATM.sub.-- Forum/96-0808R1.
Methods and apparatus used in ATM networking are described in the following sample list of publications:
User Network Interface (UNI) 3.1, published by the ATM Forum, September 1994; and PA1 Specification for LAN Emulation over ATM--Version 1.0, Ed. Bill Ellington, IBM, published by the ATM Forum, publication date not available, particularly page 44.
The SNMP protocol is described in The Simple Book--An Introduction to Management of TCP/IP based Internets, Marshall T. Rose, published by Prentice Hall, N.J., USA, 1991.
Further publications may be accessed via the ATM Forum whose Internet address is: http://www.atmforum.com.
The disclosures of the above publications and of the publications cited therein are hereby incorporated by reference. The disclosures of all publications mentioned in this specification and of the publications cited therein are hereby incorporated by reference.